Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1189 Dead End
Wen Pin rushed forward alone, trying to find a flaw in the formation and kill Xiahou Yuan.

However, Xiahou Yuan did not give Wen Pinji any chance. He just ordered the archers to shoot at the front to prevent the Jin cavalry from getting close. And the most crucial thing was that although the Cao army was clearly trying to break out, they did not panic at all when their breakout was thwarted. They quickly changed from an offensive formation to a defensive formation and obeyed his orders. This shows that Xiahou Yuan had extraordinary command ability.

Wen Pin was startled when he saw this, knowing that he had met a tough opponent. He knew that Xiahou Yuan's army was made up of veterans of Cao Wei who had conquered Yizhou. The soldiers of Yizhou and Jingzhou were basically at the same level, so the Wei soldiers must be stronger than the soldiers he led. However, he did not expect that the Wei army was now at the end of its rope, but its fighting spirit was still so tenacious!

As a veteran general of Jingzhou, Wen Pin fought in many battles over the years, but most of the time he was in pacifying the Southern Barbarians. When Cao's army attacked Jingzhou, Jingzhou had Zhang Xiu and Liu Bei to help block it, so Wen Pin almost never fought against Cao's army. As a result, he only had a direct understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Wei army today.

Wen Pin was also a proud and arrogant person. He had been defeated by the joint forces of Guan Yu and Huang Zhong before, which made him feel angry and wanted to make up for it. Now a good opportunity was right in front of him, but the situation turned out to be so ugly, so he could no longer hold back and ordered the entire Jingzhou army to charge, intending to break through Xiahou Dun's formation.

The Jingzhou soldiers in the front line were all direct subordinates of Wen Pin. They gathered into more than a dozen groups, with shield soldiers and spearmen cooperating with each other, like arrows, rushing towards the front line of Cao's army.

Those who could serve as the vanguard were the best of the best. The speed of their sudden charge was far beyond the expectations of Cao's front line. They were caught off guard and gaps were immediately torn open.

The vanguard of the Jingzhou soldiers were overjoyed. They used shield soldiers to protect the two sides and continued to charge forward, heading straight for the direction of Xiahou Yuan's flag. In just half a cup of tea, the dozen arrows had penetrated deeply into the Cao army's formation for dozens of feet, and their momentum did not decrease, and they were still advancing at a very fast speed!

Wen Pin rode up with his cavalry and caught up. When he saw this scene, he was not happy but frightened.

This was because the speed of their own breakthrough was much faster than he expected, which was very abnormal. The previous performance of the Wei army proved that their combat effectiveness was not weaker than that of the Jingzhou soldiers. Even if they responded inappropriately, they should not have allowed the Jingzhou soldiers to advance so quickly!
Wen Pin looked a few more times and suddenly reacted, his face suddenly changed. But before he could give any order, the Cao army on the opposite side suddenly waved their flags and changed their formation on the spot, from the defensive formation to the offensive formation. The separated front formation also turned into dozens of arrows, and rushed towards Wen Pin's formation!

Wen Pin immediately realized that he had fallen into a trap. The enemy had been trying to break through, but had no chance, so they lured him into an attack first, thereby deceiving the most powerful vanguard of the Jingzhou soldiers. He then used the same trick against him and directly counterattacked his weaker central army and rear formation, thus risking his life to break through the defense line. However, his central army entangled the strongest vanguard of the Jingzhou soldiers, preventing them from turning back to rescue. His own formation had been completely divided!
He immediately dismounted, picked up his spear, and shouted, "All cavalrymen, dismount. We must stop the enemy even if we die!"

Although Wen Pin responded promptly, Cao's army had been planning this for a long time, and faced with Wen Pin's rear army, which was weaker than their own, they became completely ferocious in order to survive, and tore Wen Pin's rear army to pieces like a tornado.

Xiahou Yuan, who had been in command, finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this scene. He was also under a lot of pressure. If this tactic failed, he would be the one to die. But luck was on his side, and the Jingzhou soldiers could no longer stop him from breaking through!
He immediately jumped on his horse, raised his long sword high, and shouted, "Follow me!"

On the other side, Wen Pin saw that the Jingzhou army formation around him had completely collapsed, and he could not help but roar in anger. He knocked down several Cao soldiers who rushed over, but soon more Cao soldiers came up.

Seeing that his formation was about to be completely defeated by Cao's army, Wen Pin gritted his teeth and ordered the soldiers on both wings to cut off the middle section of Cao's army that was breaking through and keep as many people as possible.

The battlefield was now in complete chaos. The center of Cao's army, which was trying to break out, was attacked and quickly split into two parts. The people in the front could not advance or retreat, which caused Cao's army to panic.

When Xiahou Yuan looked back, he found that nearly half of his soldiers had been cut off and surrounded by the Jin army. His heart bled. Most of these people were his own personal soldiers, and he was afraid that they would not be able to escape.

But as the commander-in-chief, his responsibility is to bring as many people as possible to escape. Now he can only abandon these people and break through with the rest!

Xiahou Yuan immediately gave the order without hesitation and launched a fierce counterattack against Wen Pin's army whose defense line was shattered. The soldiers of both sides were completely mixed and intertwined, and it was impossible to distinguish between friendly forces and enemy forces. In this chaotic situation, Wen Pin was helpless and could only watch as large numbers of Wei troops rushed past him and escaped.

Wen Pin wanted to catch up with Xiahou Yuan who was not far away, but the rolling crowd blocked his way. He wanted to look around for his warhorse, but it had already been swept away by Cao's army who were desperately fleeing. He could only stare at Xiahou Yuan's horse's butt.

Seeing Xiahou Yuan escape from the battlefield, he was extremely depressed. He had to reorganize his formation to stop Cao's army and asked his men to look for war horses.

Xiahou Yuan escaped with about seven or eight thousand people this time. Fortunately, most of those who were stopped were soldiers from Yizhou and Jingzhou. The direct descendants of the Wei army under his command still retained a considerable amount of personnel and combat power.

Now Xiahou Yuan was riding his horse desperately and leading his men to gallop. Seeing that they were less than thirty miles away from Maicheng, as long as they could enter the city, this breakout battle would be won!
As the front gradually approached, the outline of the city wall in the distance gradually appeared. Xiahou Yuan looked up, but found something that frightened him.

The balloon in the sky in the distance is getting closer and closer!
He gradually slowed down the speed of the warhorses under his crotch. Seeing this, the others also slowed down. They were full of confusion and cast questioning looks at Xiahou Yuan.

Xiahou Yuan was unaware of anything. He squinted his eyes and finally confirmed that Maicheng was right below the balloon.

His heart went cold. The Wei army did not have balloons, so there was only one answer.

The Jin army has occupied Maicheng.

This was something Xiahou Yuan couldn't understand. The Jin army had sent two groups of soldiers to stop him. Even if there were any remaining troops, they would definitely not be many. The Cao army had been operating Maicheng for quite some time, and from the garrison to the city defense, they were not weak. Where did the people from the opposite side come from to be able to capture Maicheng in such a short time?
Cai Mao could actually answer Xiahou Yuan's question, but Cai Mao was now on the river and could not tell Xiahou Yuan his answer in time. Because in the past few days, Cai Mao was surprised to find that Guan Yu's navy did not seem to be as strong as he imagined, and the desire to attack was not strong, and it seemed that they wanted to drag him here and not be able to move forward or backward.

At first Cai Mao didn't figure out the reason until a warship of Guan Yu's navy accidentally advanced and ran aground on a reef and was captured by Cai Mao. He sent people to count Guan Yu's navy soldiers on the ship and found that the sailors and soldiers on the opposite ship were less than half of the full staffing.

After Cai Mao interrogated the soldiers on the ship, he suddenly realized what had gone wrong.

Among Guan Yu’s navy, most of the soldiers who were skilled in land warfare were withdrawn from the navy in advance in Yiling. No one knew what they were doing specifically, but some soldiers saw that they were marching north!
Cai Mao immediately figured out the connection. The answer was self-evident. The other party was obviously going to block Xiahou Yuan!

But now Cai Mao can do nothing. Where Xiahou Yuan runs to is no longer relevant to him. What Cai Mao has to do now is not to defeat Guan Yu, but how to survive.

Even if Guan Yu's navy was repelled, the Jin army and Liu Bei would join forces to defeat Xiahou Yuan, and would definitely turn around to deal with him next.

Although Xiahou Yuan did not have any information about Cai Mao at this time, he knew that his plan to enter Maicheng had completely failed. And the most troublesome thing was that the road ahead was full of trenches and fortifications, making it impossible to move forward.

Xiahou Yuan heard faint shouts and screams behind him and knew that Wen Pin's army had caught up with him. It was too late to find a way out, so he jumped off his horse and ordered the soldiers to follow him in moving the stakes and building wooden boards on top of the trench, trying to get through as quickly as possible.

However, what you fear will come to you. Just as everyone was trying their best to get through the road, the gate of Maicheng opened wide and an army rushed straight towards Xiahou Yuan.

The journey of more than ten miles was completed in a flash. The leader was Huang Zhong. Seeing that Xiahou Yuan's army was clearing the road, he decisively waved his hand, and together with his subordinates, they drew their bows and arrows and shot at the Wei soldiers in the front.

The Wei soldiers who were clearing the roadblocks fell to the ground one after another. The others panicked and wanted to take the opportunity to flee. Seeing this, Xiahou Yuan shouted, "Where can you run to if you want to run now?"

"Only by clearing away the obstacles can we break out. Running away now will only cost us our lives!"

"Clear the roadblocks quickly, break through the enemy's obstruction, and those who disobey orders will be killed!"

After hearing this, the Wei soldiers had no choice but to follow Xiahou Yuan in the rain of arrows and work hard to clear the roadblocks.

As Huang Zhong's army gradually approached, the rain of arrows became more and more intense. Li Yan and Fei Guan were on the flank, using tree trunks to block the arrows and ordered the soldiers to pave the road with wooden boards. They were also surprised to see Xiahou Yuan personally braving the arrows and stones.

Fei Guan couldn't help but say: "General Xiahou is also an extraordinary person."

"If the Jin army hadn't pressed so hard, we might have had a chance to break out."

Li Yan remained silent. Fei Guan was right. Even if Xiahou Yuan did so, it was actually too late to save the situation, because after removing the roadblocks, there was still Huang Zhong's army waiting in the distance.

The Wei soldiers are now at the end of their strength. Their physical and mental strength have reached the limit. How can they possibly win?
Xiahou Yuan's generals also saw this. They held up their shields to block the arrows for Xiahou Yuan and advised him, "General, we will cover you. You should go first!"

Xiahou Yuan's face was filled with desolation. "I led tens of thousands of troops out of Yizhou, but now they are all wiped out. How can I face you again, my Lord?"

The general said anxiously: "General, as long as you save your life, you can make a comeback. Have you lost your fighting spirit and want to learn from the King of Western Chu?"

Before Xiahou Yuan could answer, an arrow was shot and hit the general in the back of the neck, killing him, and blood splattered all over Xiahou Yuan's face.

Xiahou Yuan looked up and saw Huang Zhong shooting arrows at him from a distance. He was so angry that he drew his sword and shouted, "There is no way for them to survive. Let's fight them!"

"Come at me!"

(End of this chapter)